After two weeks, Gilberto Simoni finally let his legs do the talking. And what a great speech come out on the French mountains! The Italian accomplished something not many guys in the peloton can boast, as he become a stage winner in all three Grand Tours after his past successes in Giro and Vuelta stages.

And many players not much in the spotlight before were grateful, as with points from "Gibo" (as well as other team members), could finally have a good result. To start from Stage 14 winner Jeffrey Paul, an American whose" Schmutzic Velo" Virtual Team included the Saeco team leader, but also got very precious points from veteran Laurent Dufaux, Euskaltel's Iban Mayo and "usual suspects" Armstrong and USPS.

His "northerrn neigbour" Howard Joe from Canada got the same score (73 points), from the same riders and the CSC Trade Team. Such that once more it was the "who posts first wins" Tie-breaking rule that proved decisive, and awarded stage victory to Jeffrey Paul, who entered his Virtual Team before Joe did.

Lack of points from both of his Trade Teams (he picked ONCE-Eroski and Brioches La Boulangere, neither of which scored on Sunday) costed Australia's Andrew McCarron a possible stage victory. "The A Team" sntached an excellent third place anyway.

Besides the podium made up of English-speakers from different countries came the best-placed German of the day, e.g. Eva-Maria Griesser, whose "Azzurras rasierte Radler" provided her with 61 points (Gibo 30, Dufaux 23, L.A. 8). More players that picked Simoni, but not Dufaux, followed, from Americans Vince Belizario, Patrick Shipley (another great result for Saturday's runner-up), George Forman and Tommie Brock to another German (Niko Hinz) to Andrea Grandi that once more took Italy into the Top 10 spots.

And worthy of mention is a second consecutive execllent peformance for Janna Trevisanut, who couldn't hit the Top 10 this time, but nevertheless had a good 16th placing, one point behind "Team Sula", the best-placed Virtual Team not containing Gilberto Simoni.

Three players didn't get any points, while as usual the Tie-breaking Rules were applied to the Top 50 Virtual Teams in the Stage Classification only.

After Sunday stage Andrew Titman is on a "solo break". One day after capturing the Overall Leadership, the Brit put more points into Harm Hanemaayer. And things couldn't be different, with such different rosters in the two teams. Armstrong, Cooke, Vinokourov, Iban Mayo and USPS earned "MayoNazon" 36 points, 20 more than Hanemaayer's bunch of sprinters could get. Such that the fact Titman is more leader than before comes as no surprise at all.

But "The Visitors" hold on. Even after Sunday's gruelling mountain stage the sprinter-studded Dutch team remains on the podium, where Hanemaayer's boys climbed onto two weeks before and were never dislodged. Probably Monday will be the day though, as the man has a minimal lead over fellow countryman Jan Dijkstra and fourth-placed Gavin Linnett. With Armstrong, Vinokourov and Mayo in the roster, the 2001 Fantasy Tour Champion can be regarded as Titman's most dangerous rival now. And after finally breaking into the top 3 places, the runner-up spot could be his own property after the next stage.

Another GC threat, South Africa's Gavin Linnett, once more pulled out of the podium places, although "Khumbaya" definitely remains a force to be reckoned with, and still the team with the best Overall Score, if we leave all Bonus Points aside.

Still three "men in orange" in the Top 5 overall, as G.B. Van Gelderen kept his fifth place by a very slim margin over two Americans, Jim Klepper (now the best-placed contender from the U.S.) and Frank A. Mogavero, who benefitted from Simoni's stage victory to move up into seventh.

The comeback of "frankamo's" into the Top 10 was no good news for Moritz Kufferath, that got only 20 stage points and dropped to ninth. "KuffiCyclers" is not the best German team any longer, as Robert "Vinyard" Haas is now three points clear. American Tim Oh had a good stage result and moved into the Top 10. Bad news for Al Alvares, back again into spot #11. Another winner of the day was Niko Hinz, whose excellent stage results lifted him up to 14th places, ahead of fellow German Matthias Jünemann (who is not getting stage victories or podium placings the way he was used to in past DP's Games, but is a solid GC contender).

More from the peloton: Walt Armstrong lost a few more positions and is now 17th in the GC. Hans Jacob Hofgaard is 21st. Two other Scandinavians (Jakob Duma and Rene Strandberg) are tied at 529 points. Stage winner Jeffrey Paul improved his position, but is no more than 150th in the Overall Standings; better than Howard Joe (244th) anyway, but worse than Andrew McFarron (92nd).

No changes at the bottom of the bunch, although 30 well-needed points from "Gibo d'Italia" Simoni helped Alan McFarlane to partially bridge the gap to Tam Ravenhil. But the "Lanterne Rouge" is still in the hands of the "Denoyer" Virtual Team Manager.